The Action tool reports error that "file is not a known format"

[David-Carnes]

I have a situation where I have people downloading text files from a state agency and then importing them into an Access database.  They have to go through a bunch of steps every time, from setting the delimiter ( a tilde ~ ) to column data types to renaming an existing table with the date appended so they can "go back in time" if need be.

Even on a perfect day this can be error-prone, due to the number of repetitive user actions.  But sometimes Access refuses to read the files, even though nothing appears amiss.

And then Alteryx walks into the room.

I took one of their problem files and crafted a sweet solution that reads the existing table, saves it back in with the current date appended to the table name, reads the file, cleans up the datatypes, and overwrites the existing table.

Now what I want to do is create an app and place it in our Alteryx Gallery.  But I'm getting an error from the Action tool when I navigate to the same file I've been uploading and testing with during development.

Input Tool Configuration

File Browse Interface Tool Configuration

Is there anything I can do to tell the Input Tool to just read the file regardless of what it thinks?

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

David

[Garrett · Accepted solution]

Assuming that the new file will always be structured the same as your original "template" file, I think you could get this to work simply by re-configuring the Action to "Update Value" (and selecting the "File" in the configuration tree view), rather than "Update Input Data Tool (Default)".

Essentially the difference is that the Action will only be changing the file name/path, but not all the additional "Options" that Alteryx requires you to set manually when reading a TXT file.

Unfortunately this quick fix will fall short if you need to also let the app user re-configure "Options" (e.g. "Delimiter").

[David-Carnes]

@Garrett:
Thank you very much!

[David-Carnes]

A follow up to the answer:

This works great when I am the one running the analytic app.  This does not translate to the Gallery, however. Once the app has been published the Gallery, the File Browse does not change the path to the placeholder file I used to create the app.  And of course if I set the Action to back to the default, it will not recognize the uploaded file as a supported format.

[David-Carnes]

A followup to my followup.

Use the Update Value option, but DO NOT check the  Update Specific String checkbox.  

It'll read the tilde-delimited files and flat files and  other weird file layouts no problem.

[AJKENDALL95]

Just logged in to say thanks for the follow up! Very helpful